Colletti's (Elston & Central): good thin crust pizza

Colletti's is a large, pink, vaguely Floridaesque-looking, establishment at Central and Elston. I had their pizza at a fundraiser at the Irish American Heritage Center a few months ago, and liked it. Recently, having thrown in the towel as far as getting good thin crust in my neighborhood, I remembered Colletti's, and gave it a try.

I'm pleased to report I've found my go-to place for pizza. Twice in the past two weeks I've picked up an extra-large pepperoni. A thin crust--not cracker thin, but thinner than most, that retains enough pliability to be folded. Not quite NY style, but close (although the toppings are certainly Chicago--i.e. a lot of cheese, pepperoni, etc.) I've ordered it uncut, which as someone on here recently pointed out, seems to make it travel better. Plus, you can then cut it into triangles. They don't deliver, but pick up is a breeze (seperate location at the back for pick-up), and the location at Elston and Central makes them readily accessible from most northwest side neighborhoods. Plus, when they say your pizza will be ready in 25 minutes, they mean it. It will be ready.

We also ate in the restaurant once, and tried one of their "speciality pizzas," the pizza Napoli. Described as "Ultra Thin Crust, Brushed with olive oil and topped with Fresh Tomatoes, Garlic, Fresh Basil and Fresh Mozzarella Cheese" this pizza is good, but not great. I think it has potential for greatness, but they need to 1) reduce the quantity of toppings (by this, I mean keep the same toppings--just use less--a sprinkling rather than an avalanche; 2) and cook it longer. The olive, fresh mozerella and fresh tomatos make it a bit soggy, as well as quite rich. I think a bit more time in the oven would improve it quite a bit. Other than pizza, the menu has the typical selections (pastas, chops, steaks, etc.)

Also, Colletti's is in full compliance with the Chicago Municipal Ordinance that requires Italian-American restaurants to 1) serve ribs; and 2) identify those ribs with some type of hyperbole. In Colletti's case, they serve "AWARD-WINNING RIBS!" that were voted (by the Suburban Times Newspaper) as "THE BEST RIBS ON THE NORTHWEST SIDE!"

I've been very pleased with my pizzas from Colletti's. I have not tried their ribs.

John,

Err... so is it at Elston/Central or Elston/Central Park? Your message makes it vague, and from your description, I wanna try this place soon. Does the Pizza Napoli have fresh tomatoes AND sauce or just tomatoes? Personally, I've never liked fresh tomatoes on a pizza unless applied very judiciously and, of course, if they're very fresh. And in this case, for whatever reason, only small heirloom or cherry tomatoes seem to work - regular romas or the like get a bitter, mushy quality when baked on a pizza. Otherwise, this sounds like a tasty option. A little trick I like to employ if a pizza if underdone is to take a slice and put it in a covered, pre-heated frying pan or skillet that has a touch of olive oil and (this is just my taste here) some red pepper flakes in it. 5 minutes later, the crust is crispy, poppin, and flavorful. This technique also works wonders with cold or leftover pizza, too. Not sure how it would do with award-winning ribs, though...

HungryRibbi

Rebbe,

The place is on the corner of Elston & Central. My advice would be to take your time getting there. You will feel much more at home once you hit 70 and your taste buds have begun to die off...but that's just my opinion.

Hungry Rabbi. See correction--Elson and Central. The Pizza Napoli has fresh tomatos, in a very small dice.

Steve, what have you had there that was so awful? Any examples? As you'll note from my post, I have only had the pizza. Do you really find it to be that bad?

hungryrabbi wrote:Err... so is it at Elston/Central or Elston/Central Park?

HungryRabbi,

Colletti's is Elston and Central.

John, I haven't been to Colletti's for a good number of years, but if Colletti's pizza is half as good as your recommendation of Fast Eddie's for Guinness it's pretty darn good.

Have you had a chance to try Phil's for delivery pizza?

Enjoy,
Gary

Colletti's
5707 N Central Ave
Chicago, IL 60646
773-775-5144

McAteer's Irish Pub aka Fast Eddie's
5943 N Northwest Hwy
Chicago, IL 60631
773-763-0095

Phil's Pizza D'oro
6132 N Northwest Hwy
Chicago, IL
773-763-2285

Gary,

To my great and abiding shame, I have not tried Phil's. I forgot all about it. So I should retract my statement about giving up on neighborhood delivery options. Next pizza will be from Phil's (though I'm seeing signs of pizza fatigue from the wife, so it might be a while.).

john m wrote:Steve, what have you had there that was so awful? Any examples? As you'll note from my post, I have only had the pizza. Do you really find it to be that bad?

To me, Colletti's is the kind of place that you take your grandmother when she wants to go out for something exotic. I've been there on several occasions and have never been knocked out. I find their red sauce to be very acidy (eg., too much tomato paste/not enough cooking time). I found the pizza crust to be a little too thick (the kind of crust that gives Chicago Pizza a bad name is some circles), the toppings to be of less than top quality and much too liberally applied, as you pointed out. With Marie's so close (in the other direction), I have found little reason to order their pizza. When I have eaten in, the clientele were of the elderly persuasion...most of who smoked like chiminy's in the bar between courses. I really want to like Coletti's since it is very close to my house, but try as I might, I just can't endorse it in any way.

Unfortunately, I've had SteveZ's luck with Coletti's.

Speaking of pizza places that I don't really "get," I've ordered up some Gigio's (Broadway location) a couple of times recently. The place is old-school, I'll give them that. I imagine that the woman who answered the phone didn't take the Chesterfield out of her mug to chortle at my inquiry about salad.

Anyway, those who have mentioned Gigio's as a place with the East Coast crust, I have to say, you are correct. The dough is very much NY/NJ/PA. Maybe more so than any other place I've tried in Chicago. But the place is a little too authentic for me, a particular brand of authentic. To wit, bad sausage and canned mushrooms, atop sauce with little flavor. If you ever wondered what mediocre pizza tastes like in NYC, give Gigio's a spin. It will make you rethink whether crust reigns supreme, because the crust is good yet the pizza, not so much. It might be better with peperoni. Mind you, this was a limited and now completed experiment. However, we're talking delivery pizza here. When there are so many options, such a need for predictability, and a fair number of positive reviews to balance my expressly qualified opinion, I figure it's worth presenting the additional "data point."

In a nutshell: pizza that might be deliverd to your hotel room in Philly or Newark if you choose at random from the phone book.

Interesting. I can see your point about the clientele being on the older side, but that doesn't bother me. Actually, when we ate in, it was about 5:30, and the crowd was evenly split between the afore-mentioned seniors, and families (like ours) with babies and children. Maybe it trends older as the night goes on.

As far as the crust on the pizza being too thick, I'm baffled. I thought that the crust was thinner than most places I've tried--quite a bit thinner. Certainly thinner than Pete's on Western (see the recent thread) which was my go-to place when I lived in Rosoe Village, St. Ben's, and Ravenswood. Maybe they've changed the crust formulation since you've last been to Colletti's?

john m wrote: Maybe they've changed the crust formulation since you've last been to Colletti's?

Could be. Maybe they are buying their pre-made crusts from a different supplier. Actually, I don't know for a fact that the crusts are pre-made, but they certainly have tasted that way in the past. Just to be fair, I'm going to try a Coletti's pizza in the near future to make sure my opinion is not out of date, since you speak so highly of it.

Just to be fair, I'm going to try a Coletti's pizza in the near future to make sure my opinion is not out of date, since you speak so highly of it.

And that's all I ask...that my opinions are treated with the seriousness and deference that they deserve

FYI, the pick-up window gives a view of the pizza making operation. No, they're not tossing the pizza around or doing anything like that, but you can see guys kneading great lumps of dough, and running them through rollers.

I'm curious to see what you think.